You Have What It Takes To Lead In Disruption, But You May Not Be Using It

Even before Covid-19, what Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum termed the fourth industrial revolution was well underway. Blending the physical, biological and technological realms, this revolution goes beyond changing how we live and work, to differentially displace and augment human capability, exacerbating disparities in wealth and access that already strain social stability. And then came 2020, which not only accelerated the shift to this technological world, but with its shuttered businesses, overwhelmed systems, racial injustice and personal loss, showed us how fragile life as we know it can be.

As the re-opening lurches forward, leaders are evaluating what adaptations from the last year are worth keeping, and what should be brought back? More eyes are on the future of work, which for many jobs will be done remotely, or increasingly by apps and bots. Leaders need greater emotional and social skills to maintain engagement and well-being of an increasingly virtual workforce and, at the same time, reimagine how work can be done. According to Deloitte, Covid-19 has pushed leaders to be more innovative, decisive, forthright, pragmatic, and risk reducing. Through all of this, leaders need to be agile, resilient, learners who can deliver the present and shape the future despite roiling uncertainty. These are diverse, contrary demands, indeed, and they call for different modes of leadership that reflect different aspects of personality or, more precisely, four energy patterns in our nervous system. The good news is you have all of them. The bad news is you may not be using them at the right time or at all.

These four energies, known since the 1930’s and the work of Josephine Rathbone, are large-scale patterns of nervous system functioning, reflecting different amounts and timing of flexor-side vs. extensor-side muscle activation and residual tension. But as choreographer and educator, Betsy Wetzig, recognized some years later, they not only characterize the quality of our movements, but also our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. When one part of the mind-body system goes into a pattern, the rest tends to follow. Like handedness, we prefer some patterns more than others, which can be measured by the FEBI® personality instrument. However, the demands and disruptions of this time will call for all four, so let me physically introduce you to your inner team of patterns. Try these simple movements and you’ll notice how they also change your thoughts and feelings.

Driver

Lean forward and bore your eyes into these words as if they were laser beams. Press your feet into the floor and notice your intense, single-point focus. Cut the blade of one hand against the palm of the other or jab the air to make a point, and you can feel the directness and clarity of this pattern. Clarity, cutting out distractions, and sharp, powerful action are among the strengths of Driver energy. In chaotic times, it is especially useful for cutting through confusion and pushing projects across the finish line. Its weakness, however, is listening, being patient or seeing the big picture. It can be hard on relationships and blindsided by what escaped its single-point focus. While great at climbing the ladder, it’s not good at sensing whether the ladder is against the right wall.

Organizer

Sit up straight, as if supporting a book on your head. Make the left and right sides of your body exactly balanced, and likewise the front and back. Fold your hands and place them at the solar plexus, feeling the upright composure of this pattern. This is a pattern that centers on order, forthrightness, doing the right thing and doing things right. Keeping this perfect posture, if you can stand, take a step forward and draw up your back foot. Take another step and draw up, walking in a processional way. This sense of holding form and taking things one step at a time are characteristic strengths of Organizer energy. It is the pattern of process and is indispensable for bringing discipline to a change process or the cycle of innovation where we might build a minimal product or service, measure its effects, and learn for the next cycle of improvement. Its weakness is that it can get rigid or stuck, its pacing may be too slow and it may get anxious in the disorder of disruptive times. While it’s great at moving projects along, it has a hard time pivoting.

Collaborator

Slowly rock in your chair side to side, and feel a sloshing ease move up through your ribcage, neck and head until your whole upper body is swinging along. Add your hands making figure-8 movements and feel into the rubbery resilience of this Collaborator energy. The rhythm of this pattern is a natural way to connect with people—as in a handshake, dance, or rocking a baby. It’s also great for finding a way around obstacles, playing and celebrating. Its improvisational quality and ability to engage people is indispensable for innovation, and its playful resilience inoculates against burnout. Its weakness is being decisive or clear. In its optimism, it may over-commit and under-deliver. While it may have wonderful social skills, it may struggle to deliver results.

Visionary

Bring your hands to either side of your head, a few inches from each ear, and see both at the same time using peripheral vision. Let your vision keep expanding to see up and down at the same time, indeed, see the entire dome around you. Running your left hand along the underside of your right arm, imagine that line of energy continuing out through your right fingertips, and let your right fingertips and arm keep extending as if they were tracing the flight of a kite in the wind with no repeating motion. Do the same on your left side. Feel into the drifting expansiveness of the Visionary. This is a pattern that is open to possibility, connects the dots, and sees the big picture. Its agility and ability to inspire, imagine and reimagine ways of working, make it indispensable to the post-pandemic leader. Its weakness is that it may have a million ideas but can’t communicate them to others or make them happen. While it’s great at sensing the emerging future, it needs its fellow patterns to bring it about.

And that is true for all of the patterns: they need one another—or better put, we need all of them—to meet the needs of this time, as summarized in the table. What the Visionary reimagines, the Collaborator can sell to others, the Organizer can put a process in place to deliver and the Driver can ward off threats and push through to completion. While these represent four essential modes in our own leadership, we can also mitigate our weaknesses and leverage pattern diversity in our outer teams. However, without due awareness, we often undervalue in others the patterns that we underuse ourselves. So it’s good to recognize the necessity and interdependence of all four energies and sense when each is called for. 

A further advantage to working with these mind-body patterns is that many demands on leaders pertain to their mindset, but as we say in Zen, it’s hard to change the mind with the mind because that’s just another fleeting thought. But when you go in through the more enduring body, you can access and practice the best pattern for whatever mindset you need. For example, if you want to reimagine work and your normal way of thinking is analytical and detail-oriented, i.e., Organizer, you can tell yourself to think more like a Visionary, but those are mere words. By physically accessing the Visionary pattern through movements, such as you did earlier or following other suggestions in the table, you’ll gain access to the right mindset for reimagining work. Likewise, any demand of this time can be more skillfully navigated by accessing the pattern that does it best.

Leading post-pandemically in the fourth industrial revolution is no easy task. And yet, this is where you chose to lead and those who look to you for leadership need you to do it well. Best to bring your whole energy team with you.